Man and the World of Stars

Schmidt Number: S-5106

On-line since: 15th March, 2017

II

The Mysteries of Man's Nature and the Course of the Year.

Dornach, December 24, 1922

IF we would deepen our thoughts at this time in a manner
suitable for the present age, this will best be done in the way
indicated yesterday, namely, by looking back over the process
of human evolution in order to recognize from the spiritual
guidance vouchsafed to mankind hitherto, what tasks devolve
upon men today. It must not, of course, be forgotten that the
point of salient importance in the Christmas thought is that in
the night just beginning the Light of Christ shone into the
evolution of humanity at the point of time when through this
Event, through this integration, as it were, of the Mystery of
Golgotha into earthly life, meaning was given to man's
life on Earth, and therewith to the Earth herself.

Yesterday I spoke to you of how in the times before the Mystery
of Golgotha an important rôle was played by the festivals
that were celebrated in the Mysteries at Midsummer, when man,
together with the Earth, opens his being to the Cosmos and when
his soul can enter into union with Powers belonging to realms
beyond the Earth. We heard how among certain peoples the
leaders of the Mysteries, following the path along which, at
Midsummer, at our St. John's tide, the human soul can be led
into the divine-spiritual worlds, offered up their thoughts and
feelings to the divine-spiritual Powers. They did this because
they realized that whatever revealed itself to them in the
course of the year was exposed to the temptations of the
Luciferic powers unless at Midsummer, when the Earth spreads
wide her wings into the cosmic expanse, these thoughts were
felt to be Grace bestowed by the divine-spiritual Beings.

I
went on to show how the evolutionary process brought it about
that for a certain section of mankind, the Midwinter festival
quite naturally replaced the Midsummer festival. Even in our
present vapid Christmas thoughts something is still left of
this Midwinter festival. The birth of the Saviour in the
Midwinter night is either celebrated in religious communities,
or, because a man feels that he must again find the way to the
light of the Spirit, he celebrates Christmas in the stillness
of his own heart, conscious that at this time of the year he is
closest to the Earth and her life when he is alone with
himself. For the Earth too, at this time, is shut off from the
Cosmos; enveloped in her raiment of snow she lives in cosmic
space as a being indrawn and isolated.

Christmas thoughts played a part even in the times when among
certain peoples the Midsummer festival was still of paramount
importance, but in the pre-Christian era the meaning of the
Christmas thought was not the same as it is today. At that time
the sublime Sun Spirit still belonged to the Cosmos, had not
yet come down to the Earth. The whole condition of the human
soul at Midwinter, when together with the Earth man felt
himself to be in a kind of cosmic isolation, was different from
what it is today. And we learn to know what this condition was
if we turn our attention to certain Mysteries that were
celebrated mainly in the South in times long, long before the
Mystery of Golgotha. Initiation in those Mysteries was
conferred upon candidates in the old way, the
Initiation-Science of that day was imparted to them. And among
certain ancient peoples this Initiation-Science consisted in
the candidate learning to read the Book of the World — I
do not mean anything that is conveyed by dead letters written
on paper, but what the Beings of the universe themselves
communicate. Those who have insight into the secrets of the
Cosmos know that everything growing and thriving on the Earth
is an image of what shines down from the stars out of the
cosmic expanse.

A
man who learnt this cosmic reading as we today learn the far
simpler kind of reading by means of dead letters, knew that he
must see in every plant a sign revealing to him something of
the secrets of the Universe, and that when he let his gaze
survey the world of plants or animals, this survey was itself a
form of reading. And it was in such a way that the Initiates of
certain ancient Mysteries taught their pupils. They did not
read to them out of a book but communicated to them what they
experienced under the inspiration of the so-called Year-God
concerning the secrets of the course of the year and their
significance for human life.

It
was in this way that an ancient wisdom related world-beings and
world-happenings to what concerned the life of man. When the
sages of old communicated such things to their pupils, they
were inspired by divine-spiritual Beings such as the
Year-God.

Who
was this Year-God who belonged to the rank of the Primal
Powers, or Archai, in the Hierarchies? Who was this Year-God?
He was a Being to whom certain of those who were versed in
Initiation-Science lifted their hearts and in so doing were
endowed by him with the power and inner light enabling them to
read one thing from the budding plants in Spring, another from
the ripening of the early fruits in Summer, another when the
leaves redden in Autumn and the fruits ripen, and yet another
when the trees glitter under the snowflakes and the Earth with
her rocks is covered with a veil of snow. This ‘reading’ lasted
for a whole year — through Spring, Summer, Autumn and
Winter; and in this reading the secrets of Man himself were
unveiled in the intercourse between teachers and pupils. And
then the cycle of the year began anew.

Some idea of what these ancient Initiates taught to their
pupils under the inspiration of the Year-God may be conveyed in
the following way. The attention of the pupils was drawn, first
of all, to what is revealed in Spring, when the snow is over
and the Sun is gaining strength, when the first buds of the
plants are appearing and the forces of the Earth are being
renewed. The pupils were made aware of how a plant growing in
the meadows and a plant growing in the shade of the trees in a
forest, speak differently of the secrets of the universe. They
were made aware of how in the various plants the warmth and
light of the Sun speak differently from the cosmic expanse in
the round or serrated leaves.

And
what could be revealed in this way under the influence and
inspiration of the Year-God through the the letters budding
forth from the Earth herself, unveiled to the pupils of the
teachers in the Mysteries, in the manner of that time, secrets
of the physical body of man.

The
teachers pointed to the physical productiveness of the Earth,
to the force of the Earth shooting into the plant. At every
single place on the Earth to which the pupil's attention was
directed, there was a different ‘letter.’ These letters —
which were living plant-beings, or living animal forms —
were then combined as we today combine single letters into
words. In sharing thus in the life of Spring, man was reading
in Nature. The Initiations bestowed by the Year-God consisted
in this reading. And when Spring came to an end, at about the
time of the month of May, man had the impression: Now I
understand how out of the womb of the universe the human
physical body takes shape and is formed.

Then came the Summer. The same letters and words of the great
cosmic Logos were used, but it was pointed out to the pupils
how under the Sun's rays which stream differently now, under
its light and warmth which now work in a different way, the
letters change their forms, how the first buds, which had
spoken of the secrets of the human physical body, open
themselves to the Sun in the blossoms. These many-colored
blossoms were now letters used by the pupil; each blossom made
him feel how the Sun's ray lovingly kisses the plant-forces
springing up from the Earth. And in the wonderfully delicate
and tender process of the cosmic forces weaving over the
Earth-forces in the blossoming plants, he read the words which
conveyed to him how the Earth strives outwards into the cosmic
expanse. Man lived in union with the Earth as she opened
herself to the Cosmos, to the distant stars, lived with the
Earth herself in the infinitudes.

What lay hidden in these infinitudes revealed itself to man as
he gazed at the letters which were the blossoming plants. He
read out of these letters what the conditions of life had been
for the human being who has descended from the spiritual worlds
to physical existence on the Earth; how he had gathered
together etheric substance from every quarter of the heavens to
form his own etheric body. Man was thus able to read the
secrets enshrined in this etheric body from everything that was
now coming to pass again between the Earth and the Cosmos. The
signs of the Cosmic Word are inscribed upon the very surface of
the Earth when the plants blossom and particular forms of life
become manifest in the animal world at the time of
Midsummer.

When Autumn approached, men saw how the letters of the Cosmic
Word were again changing. At this time the warmth and light of
the Sun are withdrawing and the plants are obliged to have
recourse to what the Sun itself has conveyed to the Earth
during Summer; in return, the Earth breathes out the blossoming
life she has received during Summer but at the same time
develops within herself the ripening fruit which brings the
cycle of plant-life to completion, inasmuch as the plant bears
within it the seed, the forces of germination. Again man was
able to unveil what the Cosmic Word inscribes on the surface of
the Earth herself in the ripening plants; again he was able to
unriddle what the forms taken by animal life in the Autumn can
reveal. He read very deep secrets of the universe in the flight
of birds, in all the changes that take place in the lower
animals and in the insect world as Autumn approaches. The way
in which the insect world becomes silent and seeks refuge in
the Earth, the changes of form it undergoes — all this
conveyed to him that in Autumn the Earth is in process of
withdrawing into herself, communing with herself.

This was brought to expression in certain festivals that were
celebrated in the latter half of September and have still left
traces in country districts in the form of the Michaelmas
festival. Through these festivals man reminded himself that
when all the paths in the Earth which led out into the Cosmos
have failed, he must unite himself with something that is not
bound up with the happenings of the physical and etheric
worlds, he must turn his soul to the spiritual content
of the Cosmos. And even in the kind of festival that is now
celebrated at Michaelmas, there is still a reminiscence of
humanity turning to that Spirit of the Hierarchies who will
lead men in a spiritual way when external guidance through the
Stars and through the Sun has lost its power.

Through everything that man read in this way in the Autumn
— a reading that was also contemplation — he
steeped himself in the secrets of the human astral body. Autumn
was the season when those who were initiated and inspired by
the Year-God read with him the secrets of the human astral body
and contemplated them under his inspiration. It was at this
Autumn season that the Initiates said to their pupils:
“Hold fast to the Being who stands before the Face of the
Sun! (The name Micha-el is still reminiscent of this.) Think of
this Being, for you will need the power when you have passed
through the gate of death into the supersensible worlds, when
you have to go through again whatever has remained in your
astral being from Earth-existence.” Secrets of the human
astral body were thus drawn from what revealed itself not only
in the ripening, but also in the withering plants, and in the
insects creeping away into the Earth. Man already knew that if
they wished to make the astral body worthy of true manhood,
their gaze must be turned to the spiritual worlds. It was for
this reason that the souls of those who were candidates for
Initiation were directed to the Being whom we can commemorate
under the name of Micha-el.

But
then came the season at the middle of which is our present
Christmas. This was the time when those who were inspired and
initiated by the Year-God pointed out to their pupils the
mysteries that are revealed when water covers the Earth in the
beautiful forms of snowflakes. The reading which in Autumn had
already become reflection and contemplation, now became inner,
active life; what in earlier seasons of the year had been
observation, running parallel with the outer physical world,
now became inner spiritual effort and activity. Life was
deepened inwardly. Man knew that he can only comprehend
the deepest essence of his Ego when he listens to the secrets
projected by the Cosmic Word, the Cosmic Logos, into everything
that takes place in Nature at the time when the Earth is
swathed in her mantle of snow and when life around and on the
Earth is contracted by cold. It was incumbent upon those who
were initiated and inspired by the Year-God to learn to
understand his writing from the indications that were given in
the season of Winter. Their observation was sharpened so that
it could follow the processes at work in the seeds which had
been laid into the Earth, and how the insects hibernate within
the closely contracting forces of the Earth. Man's gaze was led
from physical light into physical darkness.

There were certain Mysteries where the pupils were told:
“Now you must gaze at the Midnight Sun! You must behold
the Sun through the Earth. If the eyes of your soul are
filled with the power which can follow the plants and the lower
animals into the Earth, then the Earth herself will become
transparent to your inmost soul.” It is at the time when
the Earth's forces are most contracted that man can eventually
see through the Earth and behold the Sun as the Midnight
Sun, for the Earth is now inwardly spiritualized; whereas at
Midsummer, he beholds the Sun with his physical senses when he
turns his gaze from the Earth to the Cosmos. To behold the Sun
at the Midnight Hour in a deep Winter night was something which
the pupils of the Initiates of the Year-God must learn. And it
was their duty to communicate the secrets revealed to them by
the Midnight Sun to those who were faithful followers of the
Mysteries but could not themselves become Initiates or actual
pupils of the Mysteries.

And
more and more it came about in those ancient times that when
the Initiates pointed to the Sun at the Midnight Hour in the
depth of Winter, they were obliged to make known to their
pupils that man on Earth feels his Ego deserted and forsaken in
a certain way. The festival of Midwinter became for those
possessed of the greatest knowledge more and more a festival of
sadness and mourning through which it was to be brought home to
man that within earthly existence he cannot find the way to his
Ego, that he must learn from what is to be read in the signs
written by the Logos on the Earth in Midwinter, how he with his
Ego had been forsaken by the Cosmos. For it was the
Earth alone of which he was aware at this time, and that
for which the Ego yearns — the power of the Sun —
was covered by the Earth. The Sun did indeed appear at the
Midnight Hour, but man felt that the strength which would
enable him to reach the Sun-Being was continually waning. At
the same time, the very fact that man was made aware in this
way of the loneliness of the human Ego in the Cosmos, was the
prophetic indication that the Sun Being would come to the
Earth, would in the course of evolution permeate the being of
man, would appear in order to heal a humanity ailing on account
of its loneliness in the Cosmos.

Thus even in those ancient times, intimation was given of what
was to come in the evolution of man, whereby the Winter
festival of sorrow and mourning would be changed —
especially among the people of the South — to a festival
of inner joy through the appearance of Christ upon Earth. And
when this revelation descended from the Cosmos into earthly
existence, those who announced the Event declared how to all
men on Earth the message had gone forth that the ancient
festival of mourning was now transformed into a festival of
rejoicing. In the inmost depths of the Shepherds' hearts, where
their dreams were woven, the words resounded: “The
Godhead is revealing Himself in the Heights of the Cosmos, and
peace will spring forth on Earth in men who are of good
will.” Such was the proclamation in the hearts of simple
Shepherds.

And
at the other pole, to those who were the most deeply imbued
with magical knowledge, there could come from the surviving
relics of ancient Star Wisdom, the message of the entry of the
Cosmic Spirit into earthly matter.

Today, when we speak of the Christmas Mystery, we must think of
all that is experienced through it against the background of
the ancient festival of mourning; we must think of how there
has entered into the course of human evolution the power by
which man can wrest himself free from everything that fetters
him to the Earth. We must be able to formulate the Christmas
thought in such a way that we say to ourselves: The
inspirations of the Year-God which revealed to the old
Initiates how in the depths of Winter the Earth withdraws from
the Universe and enters into a time of self-contemplation
— those inspirations are still true; man can still
understand how the secret of the human Ego is connected with
this secret of the year. But out of his human insight, out of
his discerning feeling, out of the wisdom of his heart, he can
surround himself with pictures of Christ Jesus entering into
the life of men on Earth, can learn to experience in all its
depths the thought of the Holy Night.

But
he will only be able to experience it truly if he also has the
will to follow the Christ as He reveals Himself through all the
ages. The task of the Initiates of the ancient
Initiation-Science was to unveil the mysteries of human nature
through a profound understanding of the course of the year. We
too must understand what the year reveals but we must also be
able to penetrate into the inner nature of Man. And when
we do this, anthroposophical Spiritual Science shows us how the
letters which are written in heart and lungs, in the brain and
in every part of the human organism, unveil the secrets of the
Cosmos, just as those secrets were unveiled to men inspired by
the Year-God in the letters of the Logos which they read in the
budding plants, in the animals, and their manner of life on the
Earth. We in our time must learn to look into the inner being
of Man — which must become for us a script from which we
read the course of human evolution, and then devote ourselves
to understanding the meaning and purpose of that evolution.
Through deepened vision we must unite ourselves with the
spiritual forces that weave through the evolution of humanity.
And because this evolution is forever advancing, we must
experience the Mystery of Golgotha, the Mystery of the Holy
Night, anew in every epoch. We must realize the full
depth of meaning contained in words spoken by the Spirit who
sought out for Himself the body that was born in Bethlehem on
Christmas night: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the days of Earth.” We must also have a spiritual
ear for the perpetual revelation of the Logos through the being
of Man himself. Humanity must learn to listen to the
inspirations of this God of mankind, who is Christ Himself, as
men learned long ago to listen to the inspirations of the
Year-God.

Humanity will then not confine itself to contemplation of what
is transmitted in the Bible concerning the spiritual sojourn on
Earth of Christ Jesus, but will understand that ever since
then, Christ has united Himself with man in earthly life, and
that He reveals Himself perpetually to those who are willing to
listen. Humanity in our time will then learn to understand that
just as the Christmas festival once followed the Michael
festival of Autumn, so the Michael-revelation which began at a
time in the Autumn in the last third of the 19th century,
should be followed by a sacred Christmas festival through which
men will come to understand the spirit-birth needed along their
path on Earth, in order that the spiritualized Earth may
eventually be able to pass into future forms and conditions of
existence. We are now living in an age when there should not
merely be a yearly Michaelmas festival followed by a yearly
Christmas festival, but when we should understand in the depths
of our souls, out of our own human nature, the
Michael-revelation of the last third of the 19th century, and
then seek for the path leading to the true Christmas
festival — when with increasing knowledge of the Spirit
we shall be permeated by that same spirit.

Then we shall understand the words in the Gospel: “I have
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.” Humanity is so constituted that it is capable of
bearing more and more of Christ's teaching. Humanity is not
intended only to listen to those who want to hinder progress,
who point to what was once written down in barren letters
concerning the Mystery of Golgotha, and who do not want the
power of that Mystery to reveal itself to men as a living
reality through the ages. Today is not the time to listen to
those who would like to remain at a standstill in the
Springtime of the world, which reveals outer physical nature in
its brightest glory, but cannot reveal the Spiritual. Today is
the time when the path must be found from the Michael festival
to the Midwinter festival, when there should come to pass a
Sunrise of the Spirit. We shall never find this path if
in the evolution of man on the Earth we surrender to the
illusion that there is light in external life, in external
civilization, in external culture today; we must realize that
in those spheres there is darkness. But in this darkness we
must seek for the light which it was Christ's will to bring
into the world through Jesus.

Let
us then follow, with the same devotion with which the Shepherds
and the Magi from the East sought the way to the Manger on that
Christmas night — with the same devotion let us follow
the signs which can be read in the being of man himself, in
letters that are still indistinct, but will become clearer and
clearer. Then it will be granted to us to celebrate anew the
Christ Mystery of the Holy Night ... but only if we have the
will to seek in the darkness for the light.

Today we often call by the name of ‘science,’ not that which
explains the world but which instead of bringing light, sheds
darkness and obscurity. These darknesses must reach out and
take hold of the light!

If
men do but try with depth and tenderness of feeling and with
strongest power of will to find in the darkness the light of
the Spirit, then that light will shine as did the Stars of
heaven when the birth of Jesus was announced to the Shepherds
and the Magi.

We
must learn to place the Christmas thought into the historic
evolution of humanity. We have not to wait for a new Messiah,
for a new Christ. Much has been revealed to humanity through
Nature — which in the course of the last few centuries
has been leading men deep into the darkness of matter —
and we must wait for what can now be revealed to humanity
through understanding of the ever-living Christ Jesus.

We
must not fasten the Christmas thought in a conventional yearly
festival, but make it fluid and radiant, so that it will shine
for us as did the Star at Bethlehem.

It
was of this Light, this radiant Star, that I wished to speak to
you, my dear friends, on this Christmas Eve. I would like to
have done something to ensure that with the will that is
inspired in you by anthroposophical Spiritual Science, you will
unite that other will to follow the Star which in very truth
shines forth to man all through the Holy Night. In deep and
intimate stillness to permeate oneself with this Light —
that is the deepest and truest Christmas consecration for our
time. Everything else is in reality no more than an outward
sign for this true Christmas feeling which we can carry over
from this Christmas evening to Christmas morning tomorrow. Then
this Holy Night can be for us not merely a symbol but a symbol
that can become a living force. And we shall also be mindful of
how deeply we ought to unite with the spiritual striving that
in all good men leads on into the future, and at the same time
is the true Christmas striving — the striving towards
that Spirit who willed to incarnate in the body born in
Bethlehem on the historic Christmas Night.